The present invention relates generally to computer graphics, and particularly to a system and method for displaying images using foveal video.
In robotic telepresence, a remotely controlled robot simulates the presence of a user. The overall experience for the user and the people interacting with the robotic telepresence device is similar to videoconferencing, except that the user has a freedom of motion and control over the robot and video input that is not present in traditional videoconferencing. The robot platform typically includes a camera, a display device, a motorized platform that includes batteries, a control computer, and a wireless computer network connection. An image of the user is displayed on the robotic telepresence device""s display. This image is captured by a camera at the user""s location.
In one prior art approach, a robotic device is built on a remote controlled car. However, driving the car remotely is considerably more difficult than personally walking through the same area. The robotic device uses a single small camera with a relatively small field of view and low resolution. This device shares problems with videoconferencing in that the user has xe2x80x9ctunnel vision.xe2x80x9d The user is not provided with a peripheral view of the environment as compared to human peripheral vision. In addition, the central resolution of the remote camera is much lower than that of the human eye, which makes it difficult to remotely read anything other than very large text.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus to improve the resolution of the received images.
Information is displayed using a novel technique called foveal video. In foveal video, a high resolution image and at least one low resolution image are combined to produce a single image, partially high resolution, partially low resolution on a display. The high resolution image at least partially overlaps at least one of the low resolution images.
In another aspect of the invention, a computer program product embodies the method of displaying images using foveal video.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a computer system includes a processor, display and memory that stores instructions that cause the processor to display images on the display using foveal video.
In yet another alternate aspect of the invention, a robotic telepresence system displays image information received from a robot on a display at a user station using foveal video.